Bill Phillis, watchdog extraordinaire for Ohio, reports that the state of Ohio has allowed the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) to use public money in its public relations blitz to avoid accountability for inflation of enrollment and the state’s efforts to claw back more than $60 million. ECOT is notable for having the lowest graduation rate of any high school in the nation, as well as dubious quality standards. Its founder is a major contributor to elected officials. In return, he has collected many millions of dollars of profit.
Bill Phillis writes:
“ECOT has spent $33 million on ads, lobbyists, profits and lawsuits
since January 2016
“According to a September 3 Columbus Dispatch article, ECOT has spent $33 million on TV ads, lobbyists, lawsuits and William Lager’s for-profit companies since January 2016, all in pursuit of gaining state approval to continue to count students that are not participating.
“Over 400 school buses could have been purchased with the $33 million ECOT has spent recklessly. While Ohio students ride on worn-out buses, the ECOT Man spent money extracted from school districts to rev-up his tax-consuming machine.
“It is amazing that public officials have tolerated payments to ECOT’s for students not participating during a span of 15 years. Now that ECOT has finally been audited and exposed, this business is in the process of submitting a plan to transition to the totally unregulated dropout recovery charter scheme.
“Will state officials allow this duplicity to proceed? This will be an ethical and moral test for state officials and the Ohio Department of Education.”
You can contact Bill Phillis or join his organization at:
William L. Phillis
Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding
614.228.6540
ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net
http://www.ohiocoalition.org
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s been horrifying to watch because the truth is no one in state government can stop these people. Or WILL stop these people. Not the attorney general, not the governor, not the legislature. They have been robbing the state blind for a decade and now that it’s come to a head it’s become clear that our state government is all but powerless.
They’re captured. They’re so corrupt they can’t function.
If you’re an ordinary citizen and you owe the state of Ohio they have a HUGE legal toolbox to collect, and they use every tool. Not for ECOT. They don’t seize assets or use forfeiture or any of the other tools they use EVERY DAY against individuals.
The state auditor sent ARMED agents into Columbus Public Schools when there were discrepancies in reported student attendance. There were criminal trials. People were convicted and went to prison. For some reason NONE of these tools are used re: ECOT.
The reason is they’re captured. They’re corrupt. They can’t perform a basic state function, which is protecting taxpayer funds from thieves. They can put a lien on an individuals home and sell it when they don’t get paid, but they can’t rein in ECOT. Why is that? People in Ohio need to ask why the entire state government apparatus is wholly at the mercy of these people. Someone, a lot of people, are not doing their jobs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Someone, a lot of people, are lining their pockets….and they don’t want to get caught with their hand in the cookie jar! It doesn’t matter what political affiliation….they are pocket lining with money to be used to educate children. It used to be that children and old people were off the table when it came to the crooks. Now it’s a free for all for the greedy people and it truly is repugnant. Having this same issue in youth sports and I can’t even wrap my head around it. THESE ARE CHILDREN!!!
LikeLike
“so corrupt they can’t function…” — doesn’t that now sound familiar
LikeLike
This is how the State of Ohio treated Columbus Public Schools when there were attendance discrepancies:
“The well-orchestrated attendance-fraud scandal in the Columbus City School District outlined in a recent report by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost is outrageous, infuriating and possibly criminal.
If Yost’s audit findings for the 2010-2011 school year in the Columbus school district are correct, this district betrayed the trust of every student and family and eroded confidence in Ohio’s public schools.
Yost recently turned over his audit findings to state, local and federal prosecutors who will determine if there is enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.”
Yet these same people are showing us every single day that they will not do anything about ECOT. It’s not that they can’t- we saw the power of Ohio law enforcement when they sent armed agents in to raid an urban school district. It’s that they’re captured and corrupt and they WON’T.
It’s a blatant double standard. They will not regulate charter schools. They refuse. They could! They sure figured out how to prosecute Columbus Public Schools. They WON’T.
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/02/those_involved_in_the_columbus.html
LikeLike
The Fordham Institute or whatever they’re called? The charter lobbying shop that runs both public schools and charter schools in my state because they’ve wholly captured my state legislature?
They did nothing for 20 years on these charter scandals. Nothing.
They don’t even pay taxes in this state yet they’re directing the handling of hundreds of millions in state tax funding. Is it too much to ask that the state employees we’re paying stop working for a DC lobbying shop and start working for the people who pay them?
I suggest Ohio law enforcement treat ECOT like they treated Columbus Public Schools. Enforce the laws. Try that.
LikeLike
Bill Phillis is a principled advocate for and a hero of publication. His energy, passion, and dedication to public education and ethical conduct serves as inspiration for us all.
LikeLike
Autocorrect strikes again. Should be public education, not publication.
LikeLike
To make matters worse, state and national ed reformers ate STILL misleading the citizens of this state, continuing their unbroken 20 year record:
“I know many in the charter cheering section hate when I compare district performance with charters. But just remember that all but a handful of school districts lost funding and students to charters last school year. In addition, only about 1/2 of all charter school students come from the Big 8 urban districts (Akron, Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown) anymore.
If you’re taking kids and money from kids in all districts, your overall performance comparison should be with all those districts, not just the lowest performing districts, or the worst performing schools in those districts.
I contend the reason they don’t like the comparison is because 2 out of 3 Ohio school district grades are A, B, or C. Meanwhile, 7 out of 10 charter grades are D or F.
While overall Big 8 performance is worse than charters overall (nearly 3 out of 4 big 8 grades are Fs), don’t forget that significant portions of students in charter schools, including many high performers, do not come from the Big 8.”
Charter cheerleaders pretend that urban charter schools pull from the same population as urban public schools. That is not true and they know it’s not true. Urban public schools are zoned and charters are not. Charters pull from suburban districts and urban districts. This is obvious to anyone who actually lives here, but since none of these DC cheerleaders do they feel comfortable misleading us.
Let me repeat the truth here. ONLY ABOUT HALF of charter students come from the Big Eight districts. They know this because Ohio produces an elaborate demo breakdown and posts it on a website. They are deliberately misleading people.
http://10thperiod.blogspot.com/
LikeLike
You know what the worst part about ed reform is? It isn’t the charter cheerleading or the refusal to regulate. Charter schools still comprise a small minority of Ohio public schools. Public schools could easily handle the charter sector and still have solid schools.
It’s the policy capture. It’s the FACT that our legislature and state government spend 95% of their time and energy on 5% of schools.
They aren’t harming “the 95%” thru abuse. In fact,, they barely mention our schools at all. They’re harming “the 95%” thru neglect and neglect isn’t nearly as easy to spot and mitigate. They are simply not interested in the 95% of Ohio students of ALL races and income levels who attend public schools. You can’t PAY these people to attend to our schools. I know because we are paying them and they refuse!
LikeLike
It still amazes me how the big tech billionaires lobby against public schools WHILE public schools are investing billions in ed tech:
https://blog.rsed.org/2017/09/15/rocketship-parents-featured-on-reinventing-americas-schools/
They really must think public school families are dopes. They’re more than happy to take public school money while working against the schools who are their biggest volume customers.
Can’t we find vendors who don’t work to eradicate our schools? That seems reasonable. Public schools are actually bankrolling this anti-public school marketing campaign.
LikeLike
All of this has been happening under the nose of Kasich who has received campaign contributions as kick backs from Ohio’s charter pushers for pro charter legislation he helped force through. He is totally complicit in all of the charter fraud in Ohio. Not that education policy is at all good under Dumpster/ DeVos, but under Kasich as POTUS it could easily have been worse, if you can imagine that.
LikeLike